Decoding Immigration Doublespeak

This is about as good a summary of the recent immigration protest demos as can be found anywhere. There’s more there than I have passed on here…including a lot of embedded links to other reportage on the demos.

The elite media have always been out of touch with American values, and their reporting has often been at odds with reality. (See “Offensive, Tet.”) However, their coverage of the last week’s massive pro-illegal immigration rallies bordered (no pun intended) on the Orwellian, virtually requiring one to believe the inverse of everything they reported. Among their many distortions, sanitizations, euphemisms, and lies were:

“Pro-Immigration Rallies.” The elite media consisted presented the protests as rallies in favor of immigration or immigrants rights….The sympathy of the masses would be moved in quite another way were these described by more accurate terms, like “Open Borders Rallies,” “Pro-Lawbreaking Rallies,” “Anti-Homeland Security Rallies,” or “Massive Collections of Perhaps Felonious Welfare Recipients.”

Rallying for their Rights. The “pro-immigration” rallies inevitably demanded “rights.”…America grants this dignity to non-citizens because of her innate goodness, not because of any binding legal obligation. The only inalienable “rights” illegals enjoy under our system is the right to remain silent, the right to a speedy trial, and right-of-way on the first southbound mass transit system.

Continue reading →

Johnson to pitch economic development plan in Sioux Falls

Sen. Tim Johnson is proposing a comprehensive economic development scheme for South Dakota and will unveil it Thursday in Sioux Falls.

(WARNING: Entering active satire zone!)

Oh great father! Save us! We can do nothing without YOUR beneficent leadership!

It is the product of more than a dozen meetings Johnson attended in communities around the state and the responses to hundreds of surveys he sent out to residents since last December.

Hmmmmmm. Must have missed all that. Oh. Right. I’m not a registered Donk!

The agenda contains four parts:

Naaah. It’s just ONE concept, applied with different labels.

– promoting economic partnerships at the local, state and regional level;

Hmmm. Government is growing in this one: after all, SOMEBODY has to manage and adminster all this.

– seeking federal funding for start-up businesses;

More government money = more government.

– encouraging private investment and securing federal funding for industries like renewable energy and value-added agriculture, and opposing cuts to federal community development block grants and rural development funds;

Ditto both of the above comments.

– sheltering citizens against rising energy and health care cuts, and raising the federal minimum wage.

And yet more of the same: we’re just dust in the wind without the government to protect us!

Johnson, a Democrat, will present his Hometown Prosperity Plan at the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Inside Washington luncheon Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the convention center.

I can hardly wait! (Be still my beating heart!)

Rumsfeld says foes fear change

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that retired generals’ calls for his resignation are rooted in opposition to his push to streamline and restructure the Army.

The Chief would agree that there is a lot of truth in Rumsfeld’s comments concerning the crop of has-been retired generals of the ilk that has been referred to (unofficially) as “perfumed princes” – political and bureaucratic “managers” instead of examples of warriors.

Asked about resignation calls yesterday, Mr. Rumsfeld delivered a history lesson on what a Bush-ordered transformation has done for the Army and how some generals, retired and active, do not like it. He cited his decision to terminate the Crusader self-propelled artillery piece and the Comanche attack-scout helicopter, while taking the Army away from a division-centric force and toward smaller brigade combat teams that can deploy faster.

OH NO! He’s taking some of our new toys away from us! (Who cares whether or not they were actually what’s needed in today’s world military context!)

He called the Army transition to modular brigades “an enormous accomplishment. And our Army will be vastly better than it was five, six years ago. And that’s hard. That’s hard for the people in the Army to do. It’s hard for people who are oriented one way to suddenly have to be oriented a different way.”

(Self-explanatory.)

He said he is moving the armed services from “service-centric war fighting” to “interdependence. That’s a hard thing to do, for services to recognize that they don’t have to have all of the capabilities, but they have to work sufficiently with the others.”

Sounds like a kindergarten teacher’s report: “Doesn’t play well with others.” Ouch! Finally – there’s this ultimate heresy of military bureaucracy:

Mr. Rumsfeld then turned to his decision in 2003 to skip over a number of active-duty generals and pluck from retirement Gen. Peter Schoomaker, a career special operations soldier, to be Army chief of staff. Gen. Schoomaker had become a close adviser to Mr. Rumsfeld on another pet project, revamping U.S. Special Operations Command. Aides said Mr. Rumsfeld developed a trust that Gen. Schoomaker would carry out transformation the way the defense secretary wanted, as opposed to the former chief, Gen. Shinseki, who opposed much of the agenda.

What a radical concept: appointing someone you’re in agreement with and who you expect to carry out your policies! Shocking!

“The idea of bringing a retired person out of retirement to serve as chief of staff of the Army was stunning and a lot of people didn’t like it,” Mr. Rumsfeld said. “The fact that he was a Special Forces officer, a joint officer, added to the attitudes.”

“…but, but…he was already retired! He stole someone elses chance to get their ticket punched and get a new promotion! Circle the wagons! Call for the cavalry! Sound the bugle! We can’t abide THAT!!! Besides, those special ops types are actually worried about the best way to fight a war – to the detriment of maintaining the bureaucratic status-quo.”

Is it any wonder that these political generals have their nose out of joint?

F.E.T.E.

“Muslims Living Abroad Cannot… Impose Their Values…”

“When Foreigners Come to Islamic Countries… We Insist That They Respect Our Traditions”

“Something important happened recently in Australia that made us ask ourselves, Who are we and what is our attitude towards others? When foreigners come to Islamic countries to work, live, or visit, we insist that they respect our Islamic and Arab traditions. We also expect foreign workers in our countries to respect the customs of our religion, and sometimes we even go overboard and demand that their wives cover their heads with a veil, and demand that they not eat in public during the days of Ramadan, and refrain from eating pork, drinking wine, and the like… In all the Islamic countries, anyone accused of harming the sensibilities of the native residents is punished, deported, or imprisoned…”

True enough…but what’s different here is that this writer flips the coin, and in effect says that sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander:

“It is Imperative That Our Muslim Brothers Living Abroad Share the Values of Those who Prefer Secularism”

“This brings us back to Australia. Last week, Australia’s Conservative Prime Minister John Howard summoned to his office a large group of Muslim clerics from the Muslim community living in the continent, and presented them with an ultimatum. He said that Australia, which is fundamentally a land of immigrants, demands of everyone who resides in it… ‘full allegiance’ to the secular Australian constitution and not to any other law common in the countries whence the immigrants came….Just in case the words of the prime minister were not sufficiently clear, Treasurer Peter Costello added that the Muslim clerics must adhere to the secular laws, and that if they do not do so, they must leave Australia.

“The issue of ‘live and let live’ has turned into an existential issue [for Muslims living in non-Muslim countries]. In accordance with the current democratic values and with other values, the non-Muslim majority lives in systems based on separation of religion and state… Since it is not reasonable [to assume] that the situation will change… it is imperative that our Muslim brothers living abroad share the values of those who prefer secularism.

“Muslims living abroad cannot assume that they can impose their values – just as we do not permit Christians living among us to impose their values upon us…”

The remaining BIG question is whether the more…er…staunch members of “dar al Islam” are willing to listen to this, and other voices of reason, or whether the jihadistanis will continue to dominate.

Iran marks Army Day, issues more threats

Iranian President Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad spouting off again, sounding like the latter-day Fuhrer that he apparently is (in more ways than one!).

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today warned that Iran would “cut off the hand of any aggressor” and insisted that the country’s military must be prepared amid escalating tensions with the international community over its disputed nuclear program.

“Today, you are among the world’s most powerful armies because you rely on God,” Mr. Ahmadinejad declared at a parade to commemorate Army Day. “Iran’s enemies know your courage, faith and commitment to Islam, and the land of Iran has created a powerful army that can powerfully defend the political borders and the integrity of the Iranian nation and cut off the hand of any aggressor and place the sign of disgrace on their forehead,” he said.

Good timing on his part to win friends and influence people:

The defiant stance came hours before a meeting in Moscow of senior diplomats from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany to discuss the issue and less than two weeks before a council deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment.

In spite of their continued efforts to bend over and grab their ankles for the Iranians, even the Russians and ChiComs are getting nervous about the situation.

The United States, Britain, Japan, Israel, France and Germany have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to produce nuclear weapons. Iran has maintained its right to enrich uranium and says it is only building nuclear facilities to generate electricity.

If you beliefe THAT, I have some tropical beachfront to sell you here in Moody County, South Dakota!

President Bush said today that “all options are on the table” to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons but that he would continue to focus on the international diplomatic option to persuade Tehran to drop its nuclear ambitions. “We want to solve this issue diplomatically, and we’re working hard to do so,” Mr. Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden.

Hint, hint: Russia and China are invited to be in on the adult side…if they are willing to give up playing both ends against the middle. (Oh yeah, they WOULD need to slow down missile sales, etc. too, so don’t hold your breath on this happening.)

Finally, the 800 ppound gorilla in the corner got noticed:

Mr. Bush was asked if his administration was planning for the possibility of a nuclear strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. “All options are on the table,” he said.

Going Nuclear – A Green Makes the Case

In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That’s the conviction that inspired Greenpeace’s first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.

Now THIS is an interesting development: “green” nuclear power advocacy. It seems to the Chief that somebody got mugged by reality! Perhaps the moonbats are NOT all totally bereft of reason after all. This gives one hope that this is indeed the case!

Interesting also, that this appears in the WaPo – not exactly known as a bastion of the VRWC!

Look at it this way: More than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions — or nearly 10 percent of global emissions — of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. And these days it can do so safely.

By Jove, I think he’s got it! He goes on:

Wind and solar power have their place, but because they are intermittent and unpredictable they simply can’t replace big baseload plants such as coal, nuclear and hydroelectric. Natural gas, a fossil fuel, is too expensive already, and its price is too volatile to risk building big baseload plants. Given that hydroelectric resources are built pretty much to capacity, nuclear is, by elimination, the only viable substitute for coal. It’s that simple.

Yep, it really is.

He does go on to take notice of the leading objectins to nuclear power, and generally does a pretty good job of demolishing them. Check out the piece to see the rest. It makes great ammo to use on moonbat greenies who have not yet started to actively THINK about the issue (as opposed to just going by thier FEELINGS).

H/T to an e-mail from Finster at Top of Cool

The Chief is just about to go to Wyoming for the Easter weekend to visit his daughter & family. Blogging may be scarce until return next Tuesday, slthough I will try to get on some at least if possible.

I hope you all have a happy Easter, or have already had a good Seder, or if none of the above, just have a nice spring weekend!

Egyptian site: Jews kill children

Anti-Semitic messages on a website aimed at children and run by the Egyptian Brotherhood have been posted on the internet:

The site begins with praises for the Jihad, and a main page is filled with the slogan: “The prophet fighting jihad.” The page says: “The prophet fought a jihad war against the infidels and hypocrites and beat them. Hell is their fate.”

Next to the sections praising jihad appear sections with anti-Semitic messages. For example, the message reads, “did you know that the criminal Jews often cursed our master? Did you know that Jews tried many times to murder our beloved messenger (meaning Muhammad) but Allah guarded him from their attempts? Did you know that the corruption and subversion in the world are the result of acts and plans by the Jews, who are interested in pushing the people from the path of Allah?”

The site also spoke about “my big homeland,” and mentions Andalusia in Spain, saying that it is part of the Muslim homeland alongside places like Egypt, Damascus, the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, Istanbul and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Can you say “Sieg Heil” in Arabic?

Kuwaiti Reformist: The Muslims – Not bin Laden – are Responsible for the Hatred Towards Them in the West

Dr. Ahmad Al-Baghdadi, a reformist Kuwaiti intellectual and political science lecturer at Kuwait University, argues that the Muslims themselves – not bin Laden – are responsible for the rising hatred against them around the world. He says that Muslims living in the West have failed to repay the kindness of the countries that accepted them, and instead have followed the lead of the Muslim clerics and threatened to attack these countries from within. He adds that Muslims in the West must declare that they accept Western values and sever their ties with Muslims in the East, and with the religious clerics.

If there wer a few more like him, there would be real grounds for some hope for a better outcome to the Long War. However….?

Bloomberg header inaccurate!!!
Iran could produce enough enriched uranium to build a bomb in 16 days AFTER it completes a planned expansion of its centrifuge plant to have somewhat in excess of 50,000 centrifuges, which will take an undetermined amount of time.

Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says

Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

Iran will move to “industrial scale” uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the Associated Press quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.

“Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days,” Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow.

OK. Now that they know how to do the job, all they have to do is ramp up production facilities. The London Telegraph had a more straighforward report on the situation:

Our nuclear drive is unstoppable, says defiant Iran

Iran yesterday defied international outcry and a threat of sanctions by announcing that it would push ahead with plans for a huge underground uranium enrichment plant with tens of thousands of high-speed centrifuges. A day after proclaiming the “historic” achievement of mastering the technology to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel, Iranian officials dismissed criticism from the United States, Europe and even Russia and China.

Mohammad Saeedi, Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, said his country would expand the experimental “cascade” of 164 enrichment centrifuges to a plant with 3,000 machines by the end of the year. It would then build a full-scale factory with 54,000 centrifuges in a cavernous bunker in Natanz. Mr Saeedi did not, however, say how long this would take.

Something still has got to give, as indicated by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:

Rice: ‘Time for Action’ on Iran

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday said the world is very concerned about Iran’s defiant pursuit of nuclear technology, and when the U.N. Security Council meets later this month, “I do think it will be time for action,” she said.

Stay tuned for further developments!

Reaganomics in Galactic Civilizations II

Finster, the game-miester at Top of Cool has noted an interesting piece of programming in the game Galactic Civ II: if the taxation rate is kept low, the outcome in your efforts to build up your virtual galactic civilization go much better than if you jack up your tax rate.

The game model has lower taxes associated with greater population growth, as well apparently greater productivity! I don’t think Laffer has a credit in the game, but perhaps he and the Gipper both should have one.

Top of cool, indeed!

There IS a problem with global warming… it stopped in 1998

For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem. In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco. Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).

Yes, you did read that right. And also, yes, this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society’s continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

With some more discussion of the situation, the following paragraph zeroes in on the question:

The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown. We are fortunate that our modern societies have developed during the last 10,000 years of benignly warm, interglacial climate. But for more than 90 per cent of the last two million years, the climate has been colder, and generally much colder, than today. The reality of the climate record is that a sudden natural cooling is far more to be feared, and will do infinitely more social and economic damage, than the late 20th century phase of gentle warming.

Once again, found in the London Telegraph, not over here. Apparently this is not “news that’s fit to print”.

Climate of Fear
Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence.

Here’s a real, hard-core scientist (M.I.T. good enough for you?) who highlights the rise of an attitude of ideological orthodoxy within the scientific community – complete with its own version of a de-facto inquisition to actively suppress any findings that go against the prevailing dogma – in this case concerning global warming & its supposed effects.

There have been repeated claims that this past year’s hurricane activity was another sign of human-induced climate change. Everything from the heat wave in Paris to heavy snows in Buffalo has been blamed on people burning gasoline to fuel their cars, and coal and natural gas to heat, cool and electrify their homes. Yet how can a barely discernible, one-degree increase in the recorded global mean temperature since the late 19th century possibly gain public acceptance as the source of recent weather catastrophes? And how can it translate into unlikely claims about future catastrophes?

The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes. After all, who puts money into science–whether for AIDS, or space, or climate–where there is nothing really alarming? Indeed, the success of climate alarmism can be counted in the increased federal spending on climate research from a few hundred million dollars pre-1990 to $1.7 billion today. It can also be seen in heightened spending on solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol and clean coal technologies, as well as on other energy-investment decisions.

But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.

This is NOT a good thing! For the record, the Chief changed his major field of study from Political Science to Biology to flee the effects of political correctness – but it has spread its insidious evil even to matters that, based on clear scientific evidence, should be beyond debate.

This piece is well worth reading, with a lot of information on the situation, as Dr. Lindzen makes his way to his all too sad conclusion:

Alarm rather than genuine scientific curiosity, it appears, is essential to maintaining funding. And only the most senior scientists today can stand up against this alarmist gale, and defy the iron triangle of climate scientists, advocates and policymakers.

Indeed.

Rice Calls for ‘Strong Steps’ Against Iran

Denouncing Iran’s successful enrichment of uranium as unacceptable to the international community, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the U.N. Security Council must consider “strong steps” to induce Tehran to change course. Rice also telephoned Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to ask him to reinforce demands that Iran comply with its nonproliferation requirements when he holds talks in Tehran on Friday.

Although this all sounds very well, what in the world does it actually accomplish? The Chief is fully confident that if he took this along with 60 cents he could get a can of Diet Coke. How much else it accomplishes is debateable at best.

Rally organizer tied to Marxist party

Whay am I NOT surprised?

One of the key organizers of the immigration protests and rallies nationwide, including yesterday’s in Washington, is a group whose leaders are tied to the Workers World Party, a Marxist organization that has expressed support for dictators Kim Jong-il of North Korea and Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

They seem to have the ANSWER:

Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, which also has proposed a nationwide boycott on May 1 to protest congressional efforts at immigration reform and border security, is an offshoot of the International Action Coalition, an anti-capitalism group founded by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Ramsey Clark? Now THAT’s informative. There MAY be a farther out moonbat lefty somewhere, but the Chief would be hard-pressed to figure out where, at least this side of the Korean DMZ.

The Workers World Party, a communist organization in the United States founded in 1959, describes itself as a party that has, since its founding, “supported the struggles of all oppressed peoples” and opposes “all forms of racism and religious bigotry.” In addition to sponsoring or directing numerous popular-front groups, it was instrumental in founding ANSWER through the International Action Coalition.

As far as the illegal demos go – if they don’t like it here, they shouldn’t let the door hit them in the ass on the way out!

Romania returns Dracula castle to royal bloodline

The Transylvanian castle that inspired the Dracula legend is to be returned to royalty decades after Romanian Communists confiscated it.

In a move designed to clear up unfinished business before the country joins the European Union in 2007, the Romanian government is giving over ownership of the Bran Castle to Dominic von Habsburg.

This is not a trivial thing – the castlke is valued at $25M!

Electoral College Politics

Ken over on South Dakota Politics has a constitutional primer on the electoral college, its significance (important!), and its continuation (no changes likely).

This is worth a read if you don’t happen to regularly get over there. The Chief found this post about as clear on this (to many / most?) arcane subject.

Yes, the electoral college IS designed to limit the scope of democracy in the American Republic – and rightly so.

Huge Crowds March for Immigration Rights

NOTE: The CHief is NOT saying that Latin American culture is necessarily barbaric. Like ours, it has different components, some of which ARE arguably barbaric, others of which are on a par with the best of anyting in the world, and other aspects that are fully as decadent as Hollywood. In case you hadn’t guessed – the CHief does NOT consider all cultures equal in merit – some are obviously undesireable – “By their fruits ye shall know them’.

Hundreds of thousands of people demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants took to the streets in dozens of cities from New York to San Diego on Monday in some of the most widespread demonstrations since the mass protests began around the country last month.

The main concern of the Chief is the meltdown of the legal system and the US border status. A nation without borders cannot survive.

Arrival of aliens ousts U.S. workers

An Alabama employment agency that sent 70 laborers and construction workers to job sites in that state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina says the men were sent home after just two weeks on the job by employers who told them “the Mexicans had arrived” and were willing to work for less.

What was that argument? Oh yeah. the one that says that Mexicans are only taking jobs that Americans won’t do. Put a fork in it – it’s done!

Senate immigration overhaul in doubt

The McCain-Kennedy Illegal Alien Amnesty Act is being held up in the Senate by Senators concerned about voter backlash reaction to the scheme. Fancy that!

Planet’s ring is once in a blue moon findThe outermost ring of Uranus, discovered just last year, is bright blue, making it only the second known example of its kind in the solar system. Perhaps not coincidentally, the blue rings around Saturn and Uranus are both associated with small moons, a team of astronomers report today in the journal Science.

Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads

Surprise, surprise, surprise! NOT!

Iran has successfully developed ballistic missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads. Detailed analysis of recent test firings of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile by military experts has concluded that Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb.

Click on image to enlarge.

Somethings got to give – the only question is whether we will do the job or ditch the dirty work onto Israel.

Cuba Declares Candidacy for UN Human Rights Council

Another illustration of just why the US should give the UN its walking papers and “invite” it to depart for Eurabia.

Pledging to share its experiences in the human rights field with the international community, Cuba’s communist government has announced its candidacy for the United Nations’ new Human Rights Council (HRC).

The UN’s so-caslled Human Rights Council is “new” because the old UN Human Rights Commission became totally discredited by having some of the planets most abusive regimes represented on it. At this rate, the replacement HRC v.2 will have exactly the same problem.

Then again, maybe this is a good thing – with the Castro dictatorship with its tropical version of the old-style Soviet GULAG on the Council, no one will have to take it seriously. No doubt the MSM and the DUmmies will do so anyway, but what else is new?

“The Cuban people can show to the world, with deep modesty but with full satisfaction and pride, its tremendous achievements,” President Fidel Castro’s government said…

Nah – there’s no way that Cuba can yet hold a candle next to the ChiComs, although they may well give Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran a run for their money comparing the quality of human rights or rather the lack thereof.

This is like something from a bad acid trip – it’s so nasty and unbelieveable that it’s totally beyond the ability of a rational mind to comprehend it. But wait…there’s more:

Iran Seeks Seat on UN’s New-Look Human Rights Body

Iran has declared itself a candidate for the United Nations’ new human rights body, joining several dozen other states that have put forward their names ahead of next month’s election.

As for the gory details…

The State Department’s latest report on global human rights, released last month, said that during 2005, “the [Iranian] government’s poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous, serious abuses. “The report cited problems including torture, summary executions, arbitrary arrest, lack of fair trials, discrimination against women and “severe restrictions on freedom of religion.”

Hey – if the NY Slimes Times doesn’t care, why should anyone else be troubled by those pesky facts?

Last December, in a 71-54 vote (with 55 abstentions), the U.N. General Assembly passed a strongly worded resolution condemning Iran’s human rights violations.

According to a UN listing, they are joined as candidates by such luminaries of human freedom as China, Russia, Pakistan, and the Fidelista-lite regime of Venezuela.

To add injury to insult, remember, it’s your tax dollars at work to pay for the diplomatic outhouse known as the UN.

Don’t deny that some Muslims are hot for jihad

H/T to South Dakota Politics on this.

Steyn cuts to the chase:

To win a war, you don’t spin a war. Millions of ordinary citizens are not going to stick with a “long war” (as the administration now calls it) if they feel they’re being dissembled to about its nature. One reason we regard Churchill as a great man is that his speeches about the nature of the enemy don’t require unspinning or detriangulating.

Go read this piece – it’s seriously excellent, and calls it like it is.

Blogging may be sporadic for the rest of the week, as the Chief will be traveling to Anaheim for the National Science Teachers’ Association convention there.

The Chief may or may not be able to keep the ball rolling – stay tuned and you’ll find out at the same time I do.

The Chief has gotten some comment on the JAIL amendment, although I have not posted on it lately, and some thoughts seem to have crystallized since the last time I did comment on it.

I have to admit reservations on the issue at this point, after an initial positive reaction to it. I still haven’t seen any logical explanation of how the specific language of the proposal goes beyond the stated goals of setting up some judicial review outside the good old boy world of the legal community, but…on the other hand, some of the apparent background of the originators of the measure does NOT make me feel all warm and fuzzy towards their program.

Finally, the thought of someone like the Dakota Rural Action or American Communist Civil Lawyers Liberties Union going after judges that they disagree with is indeed the stuff of nightmares.

In the final analysis, the JAIL proposal is too heavily on the side of the creation of a mobocracy, as opposed to the sometimes (fortunately) coagulated processes of a republican system.

These thoughts have been percolating for a while on the back burner of my brain, and were finally crystallized by a comment from No One.

Yale wins Campus Outrage Award

The Collegiate Network has given its annual award to highlight the negative influence of political correctness to Yale University for enrolling a former Taliban official with a fourth-grade education. “Yale pursued [Sayed Rahmatullah] Hashemi’s admission in the name of that sacred cow, diversity, which now appears to extend not only to people of various sexes, creeds, races, ethnicities, sexual preferences and practices, but also to enemy combatants who make war upon the United States,” the conservative group said.

For allegedly being institutions of higher learning, a lot of these highly touted schools are “stuck on stupid”.

The winner of the second-place 2006 Campus Outrage Award, also called the Polly Award — “Polly” being an abbreviation of the term “political correctness” — was DePaul University, which suspended adjunct professor Thomas Klocek, without a hearing, after he attempted to debate students handing out pro-Palestinian literature.

The group also said DePaul criticized campus College Republicans after the group organized a protest against liberal activist Ward Churchill, who was delivering a speech at the university. Mr. Churchill, a University of Colorado ethnic studies professor, last year wrote that the U.S. deserved to be attacked on September 11, 2001. “Apparently, free speech is allowed at DePaul only as long as it accords with the political views of the university administration,” read the Collegiate Network’s response.

The other five award recipients include Stanford University, the College of the Holy Cross, the entire University of California system, the University of Iowa and Canisius College.

The Chief is glad his son is going to BYU!

Death OK’d for Moussaoui

Al Qaaida terr Moussaoui was declared fit to kill by a jury, advancing him in his religious quest to achieve his Islamofascist reward, allegedly 72 virgins, etc.

Now the jury decides whether or not he actually will get his wish. The Chief hopes that this happens but thinks he will be rather surprised that the conditions he finds after checking our of this world are NOT those he expected. Can he say “barbecue sauce”?!

DeLay to quit campaign, step down from Congress

This is a good thing – DeLay is showing as much grace as he can under difficult circumstances, and this can only help the GOP keep it’s head count up in the house.

’nuff said.

U.S. Losing Unofficial Space Race, Congressmen Say

Some congressmen believe the United States and China are in an unacknowledged space race that this country could lose if it doesn’t spend more money on the civilian space program.

DUH! No shit, Sherlocks!

The communist nation’s military runs its manned space program, employs an estimated 200,000 workers and has set a goal of putting an astronaut on the moon by 2017. By contrast, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a civilian government program with a limited budget that directly employs fewer than 20,000 civil servants and has lost the commanding lead it once held over the rest of the world in human space exploration.

Like the song says: “Every picture tells a story, don’t it!”

We had best get off our butts on this, or we will find ourselves in deep dung indeed if the ChiComs are able to hold the ultimate high ground.